Mobile tracking device for transporation industry

ABSTRACT

A freight tracking system having sufficient accuracy for most commercial freight hauling purposes is disclosed. The system includes a mobile telephone transmitter located in the freight or in the vehicle hauling the freight that automatically calls a telephone at the central reporting station. A caller reception unit detects the calling number and current visited base station information without answering the call and supplies it to a computer at the central reporting station which then determines the location of the shipment.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims priority to provisional application60/248,051 and incorporates the contents of that application byreference. Additionally, this application contains subject matterrelated to co-pending application 60/225,755, the contents of which arealso hereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] This invention relates to a freight management system fortracking the location of freight as it moves from its point of origin toits destination.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] Commercially available freight tracking systems are based on acombination of a Global Positioning System (GPS) radio receiver and anin-vehicle back-link device for transmitting information to a centralreporting station. The in-vehicle back-link device for transmittinginformation is most usually a mobile telephone and is sometimes a radiotransmitter. The GPS receiver determines the precise location of thevehicle from transmissions received from overhead GPS satellites and theback-link device communicates this location back to a central reportingstation. This GPS and back-link system provides precise information onthe location of the vehicle, but unfortunately is relatively expensiveto implement. It would be desirable, therefor, to have a freighttracking system that is less costly.

[0004] When a mobile telephone is outside its “home” subscription areait is said to be “roaming”. When roaming, a mobile telephone continuallylistens for a new “beacon signal” from a nearby base station or tower.Upon reception of a new beacon signal, the mobile telephone willidentify itself and request registration on the “visited location”system to be able to receive and send calls. When the visited locationsystem receives the identification information it sends an“authentication request” to the requesting mobile telephone's homesystem, which sends an appropriate “authentication response” to thevisited location system. The visited location system then approves ordisapproves user access and sends “notification of authentication orrejection” to the mobile telephone. An approved mobile telephone is thenable to receive and send calls in the visited location; the home systemwill subsequently receive all necessary information for all calls suchthat it will be able to bill for “roaming”, long distance and otherprovided services. A rejected mobile telephone does not have access toservice in the visited location. For more detail on roaming and beaconsignals see “Beacon Signals: What, Why, How, and Where”, by S.Gerasenko, et.al., IEEE Computer, Volume 34, Number 10, October 2001,pp.108-110.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0005] In view of the above-noted problems of cost-effective freighttracking, the present invention provides a tracking apparatus having acallback unit programmed to telephone a specific destination and thenterminate the telephone calls prior to their completion and attachmentto a mobile device. The present system includes a computer systemresponsive to the unanswered calls from the callback unit, the computersystem having call-information processing software, a database, and auser interface resident. The unanswered-call information can beproprietary to a specific telephone provider, or can be customized to astand-alone phone company integrated with the computer system. The callscan be received by either a landline telephone system connected to thecomputer system, or by a mobile telephone system which transfers callsto a landline system also connected to the computer.

[0006] An additional embodiment of the present invention encompasses amethod for tracking, including the steps of calling a central basestation from a callback unit attached to a mobile device, programmingthe duration of the telephone call to be sufficient to conveycall-origin properties yet brief enough to hang up before incurringcalling charges, reading call-origin information accompanying the call,processing desired portions of the call-origin information by a computersystem connected to the central base station; and coordinating thecall-origin information with a database within the computer system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0007] The foregoing and other features and advantages of the inventionwill become more apparent from the detailed description of the exemplaryembodiments of the invention given below with reference to theaccompanying drawings in which:

[0008]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a freight tracking system constructedin accordance with a representative embodiment of the present invention;

[0009]FIG. 2 shows in greater detail the construction of the mobiletracking unit of FIG. 1;

[0010]FIG. 3 shows in greater detail some of the equipment located inthe freight management exchange of FIG. 1;

[0011]FIG. 4 shows an independent telephone company implemented withinthe present invention;

[0012]FIG. 5 shows application software integrated within a computersystem;

[0013]FIG. 6 shows a mobile telephone receiver incorporated within atracking unit;

[0014]FIG. 7 shows the user interface for tracking and tracing ashipment;

[0015]FIG. 8 shows the user interface for checking the status of ashipment; and

[0016]FIG. 9 shows the user interface for viewing the details of ashipment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0017] The present invention can be used for locating any type of mobiledevice that can originate a telephone call. It provides a less costlyway to determine the approximate location of the mobile device withsufficient accuracy for many purposes that do not require knowing itsprecise location. For illustrative purposes, the following embodimentswill be implemented within the transportation industry. The presentinvention provides a less costly freight tracking system havingsufficient accuracy for most commercial freight hauling purposes.However, this invention can be applied to any industry.

[0018] The system of the present invention includes a mobile telephonetransmitter located in the freight or in the vehicle hauling the freightthat periodically calls a telephone at a central reporting station. Thistelephone call is never answered, so that no calling charges areincurred. Instead, a caller reception unit detects the calling numberand its current visited base station information without answering thecall, and supplies that information to a computer located within thecentral reporting station. This computer accesses a database thatcontains visited base station location information for the region inwhich the freight hauling vehicle is traveling (for example, thecontinental United States as well as portions of Mexico and Canada) anduses it to determine the geographical location of the visited basestation from which the call was originated. In this manner, the locationof a freight unit is determined to within a few miles around the visitedsystem base station without ever completing a call and without incurringthe call charges associated with such a call.

[0019] In an alternate embodiment, the mobile telephone unit, ratherthan periodically sending the information, also contains a mobilereceiver that receives (also without answering the call) an impliedrequest to callback the central reporting station. The call is thenplaced by the mobile transmitter and processed in the same manner asdescribed above.

[0020] Referring to FIG. 1, a small, inexpensive mobile tracking unit 10is located in the vehicle hauling the freight or in the freight itself.As shown in FIG. 2, mobile tracking unit 10 includes a control unit 11that controls a mobile cellular telephone transmitter 12. Control unit11 is programmed to cause the mobile telephone transmitter 12 toperiodically call a telephone located at a central reporting station 50that is part of the freight management exchange 15.

[0021] The mobile cellular telephone transmitter 12 may be caused tocall the central reporting station 50 periodically; e.g. once an hour.The mobile phone call 84 transmitted by the mobile tracking unit 10 canbe received by a cellular telephone system 13 that can, in turn,transfer it to a landline telephone system 14.

[0022] In either case, the landline telephone system 14 routes the callto one of several central reporting stations 50 (FIG. 3) which are partof the freight management exchange 15. Typical equipment located at acentral reporting station 50 is shown in FIG. 3. The equipment includesa virtual telephone 16 that represents the telephone number to which thetelephone call from the mobile tracking unit 10 is placed. However, thecall is never answered. Despite the lack of an answer, the accompanyingmobile caller identification information 52 (FIG. 4) is still detectedby a caller reception unit 17 and supplied to a computer 18 which storesthis information along with the date and time of its arrival. The mobiletracking unit 10 and the caller reception unit 17 are programmed todisconnect the call after a selected number of rings. Informationcontained within the call can be made available to customers 21 (FIG. 1)through communication units 22.

[0023] The mobile caller identification information 52 received andstored by computer 18 includes the calling telephone number, which isused to identify the particular mobile tracking unit 10 that made thecall as well as additional information about its approximate presentlocation. For example, this additional information might be the visitedlocation tower identification code or the telephone area code andexchange of the visited location telephone tower 80 which first receivedthe call from the mobile unit 10. This visited location toweridentification code or area code and exchange code information isautomatically included as part of the mobile caller identificationinformation 52 stored by the computer 18. Other encoded information mayalso be included. In a preferred embodiment, this information as well asa date and timestamp is packaged within the well-known SS7 telephonetransmission protocol, although other protocols could also be used. Asshown in FIG. 5, application software 54 resident on computer 18 detectswhich protocol is used, and queues and formats the information forsubsequent processing by database application 19.

[0024] In a preferred embodiment, database 19 contains the geographicallocation of each cellular telephone tower identification code andtelephone area code and exchange located in each area of the entireUnited States (and Canada and Mexico, if desired). In other words,database 19 contains a listing of the geographical locations of all thedifferent unique towers and area code/exchange code combinations for thegeographical region of interest (e.g., the entire United States).Computer system 18 contains a link to a telephone provider that allowsfor frequent periodic updating of cellular tower identification codesand area codes and exchanges and the geographic regions with which theycorrespond. When computer system 18 receives a packet of mobile callerinformation, it queries the database 19 to determine the geographicallocation from which the call was made. The geographical location,received mobile caller information, and date and timestamp are stored bycomputer system 18 and is processed by software application 54.

[0025] The method by which software application 54 strips off andformats the call data from cellular telephone system 13 can vary, and asstated depends in part on the protocol used. As stated earlier, callingcharges are avoided by not answering the telephone call. However, othertypes of charges are still incurred. Even though the call was notanswered, telephone companies may still charge for the use of atelephone number, or their cell tower or area code and exchangeinformation. Numerous arrangements exist in which telephone companiesmay be compensated for the use of their information.

[0026] An alternative method for obtaining call information is to form anew or independent telephone company 90, as shown in FIG. 4. This hasthe advantage that no fees or charges are incurred per call. Instead,access rights to wireless transmitters 94 and in some cases an initialcell tower 81, forwarding cell tower 80, or a combination of the two arepurchased or leased at bulls rates. This approach also results inadditional advantages in maintaining the company's computer system andweb server 60.

[0027] The system described above can be implemented through a varietyof computer network topologies and implementations, including WANs, DSL,Voice over IP (VoIP), or any combination of these. Accordingly, mobilecaller identification information 52 is shown as arriving at centralReporting Station 50 ₁, but can actually be directed to any of theCentral Reporting Stations 50 _(1-n). In a preferred embodiment, acustomer is assigned a specific user ID and password. As shown in FIG.5, application software 54 works with database 19 to manage these userIDs and passwords so that customers 21 are granted access only tospecific data areas of computer system 18. The data segmentation ismanaged by application 54 with the cooperation of database 19, so thatthe customers 21 are prevented from accessing information belonging toother customers. Using their user ID and password, a customer 21 can logonto the tracking company's Internet website 60 and determine thegeographic location of one or more of their specific shipments.

[0028] A customer 21 lacking access to the computer network of thepresent invention who wants information on the current location of aparticular freight shipment can also call the freight managementexchange 15, which then provides the desired information by voicethrough a communication unit 22 as shown in FIG. 1. This is accomplishedthrough a data terminal 20 coupled to the computer 18 for viewing orprinting reports or providing audio of the time and location data forthe different freight shipments being tracked by the system. If desired,this process may be automated so that location reports are automaticallyand periodically sent, either by e-mail, telephone, fax, or othersuitable means of communication, to the customer 21. Alternatively,customer relationship management software using touch tone menus and avoice recognition unit (VRU) may be used to allow callers to query thetime and location data without the intervention of a human operator.

[0029] A freight tracking system in accordance with the presentinvention can simultaneously handle a relatively large number ofdifferent mobile tracking units. In a single-telephone environment withno “call waiting” feature, the different mobile units can be programmedto place their calls at different times. However, as shown in FIG. 5,additional telephone lines 92 arranged in one or more hunt groups can beprovided at the central reporting station 50 and connected to computersystem 18 for handling a greater number of incoming calls. Thesemultiple telephone lines are managed by the computer system 18 which isin turn equipped with a multi-threaded operating system 62 which iscapable of spawning a new process 64 each time a new line is added. Eachprocess 64 manages the processing the proprietary telephone company dataand matches that processed data with a specific shipment contained indatabase 19. In the embodiment where the central reporting stations 50are merged into an independent telephone company, the proprietarytelephone company data described above is no longer proprietary, but canbe customized to conform with either the needs of customers 21, centralreporting stations 50 _(1-n), or mobile unit 10.

[0030] As a further modification, FIG. 6 illustrates how the mobiletracking unit 10 also includes a mobile telephone receiver 66 forreceiving a telephone call from the freight management exchange 15.Again to avoid calling charges, this call is also not answered. Instead,the control unit 11 detects the occurrence of this call and the callingtelephone number and instructs the mobile telephone transmitter 12 to,in response, place a call to the calling telephone number at the freightmanagement exchange 15. This call is received and processed by thefreight management exchange 15 in the manner previously discussed toprovide the desired location information for the mobile tracking unit10. This method of having the freight management exchange 15 triggersthe call by the mobile unit 10 may be used either in addition to or inplace of the above-described method of having the mobile unit 10 maleself-initiated calls.

[0031] In a multiple telephone line environment, the applicationsoftware 54 can manage not only the amount of incoming calls but alsothe frequency at which those calls occur. At a specified distance fromits destination, mobile unit 10 may call the exchange 15 every threehours. However, as the distance falls below a specified limit,application software 54 can force mobile unit 10 to call the freightmanagement exchange 15 once every hour.

[0032] Additionally, application software 54 can call all mobile units10 which are expected at a specific destination within the next hour, orthe next three or four hours. Software 54 accomplishes this by queryingdatabase 19 to determine the current location of all trucks going to thesame destination and using an industry standard expected travel timedatabase, e.g. PC Miler, to calculate the expected time of arrival. Itshould be noted that different types of vehicles will have differenttravel times from the same current location to the same destination. Forexample, a hazardous cargo transport may not be allowed to go through atunnel increasing the travel time by perhaps one hour. The software 54can then query which of the trucks from among this pool are expectedwithin a specific time-range. The same query can be adjusted to searchfor shipments rather than trucks.

[0033] As shown in FIG. 7, the software 54 has a user interface 70 beingdivided into several panels including WATCH LIST, OPEN ORDERS, TRACKINGAND TRACING, and WORKSPACE. To access these panels customer 21 mustsuccessfully login by entering an authorized user ID and password. FIG.7 shows a brief summary of currently active or incomplete bookings. Theuser clicks on the heading or a specific booking to display a completelist of incomplete bookings, and can then click on one or more columnheadings to sort the list by that column. Clicking anywhere in theTRACKING AND TRACING panel caused additional tracking and tracinginformation to be displayed in the WORKSPACE panel. Within thisworkspace panel, the first shipment in the list defaults to beinghighlighted, although the user can select and highlight any shipment inthe list. Accordingly, the top shipment, with booking number 422162, ishighlighted and will be used as an example for further explanation ofthe present invention.

[0034] For example, the status of booking 422162 can be obtained byclicking the “Status” button 100 in the lower part of the presentWORKSPACE panel. Doing so brings up a status screen 102 as shown in FIG.8, in which a customer 21 can choose from a variety of information abouta booking, including Current Location 104 and Scheduled Arrival 106, aspreviously discussed. A link 108 to a mapping utility provides aconvenient visual cue for locating a shipment.

[0035] Similarly, other details of booking 422162 can be obtained byclicking the “Booking Details” button 101 in the lower part of theWORKSPACE panel shown in FIG. 6. Doing so brings up a details screen 120as shown in FIG. 9, in which a customer 21 can choose from other detailsregarding a shipment.

[0036] While the invention has been described and illustrated withreference to specific exemplary embodiments, it should be understoodthat many modifications and substitutions can be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the inventionis not to be considered as limited by the foregoing description but isonly limited by the scope of the appended claims.

1. A tracking apparatus, comprising: a mobile device varying ingeographic location; a callback unit, attached to said mobile device,programmed to telephone a destination and terminate said telephone callprior to completion of said call; a computer system responsive to saidunanswered calls from said callback unit, said computer system havingcall-information processing software, a database, and a user interfaceresident therein.
 2. The tracking apparatus of claim 1, furthercomprising said unanswered-call information being proprietary to aspecific telephone provider.
 3. The tracking apparatus of claim 1,further comprising said unanswered-call information being customized toa stand-alone phone company integrated with said computer system.
 4. Thetracking apparatus of claim 1, further comprising said callback unit ispre-programmed to originate calls according to a user's preferredschedule.
 5. The tracking apparatus of claim 1, further comprising saidcalls are received by a landline telephone system connected to saidcomputer system.
 6. The tracking apparatus of claim 1, furthercomprising said calls are received by a mobile telephone system whichtransfers them to a landline telephone system connected to said computersystem.
 7. The tracking apparatus of claim 1, further comprising saiddatabase is coordinated with a telephone provider to frequently updatearea codes with geographic regions.
 8. The tracking apparatus of claim1, further comprising said computer system, application, database, andan operating system restrict separate users from viewing data belongingto other users through separate processes each of which has a datasegregation component.
 9. The tracking apparatus of claim 1, furthercomprising said computer system being operable by a human or automatedattendant vocally communicating with users through telephone.
 10. Thetracking apparatus of claim 1, further comprising said computer systemhaving multiple telephone lines connected thereto.
 11. The trackingapparatus of claim 1, wherein said callback unit further comprises anreceiver for receiving telephone calls and in response originating acall to said computer system.
 12. The tracking apparatus of claim 4,wherein said callback unit adjusts the frequency of outgoing callsdepending on its distance or expected travel time from a predetermineddestination.
 13. A method for tracking, comprising: calling a centralbase station from a callback unit attached to a mobile device;programming the duration of the telephone call to be sufficient toconvey call-origin properties yet brief enough to hang up beforeincurring calling charges; reading call-origin information accompanyingsaid call; processing desired portions of said call-origin informationby a computer system connected to said central base station; andcoordinating said call-origin information with a database within saidcomputer system.
 14. The tracking method of claim 13, further comprisingsaid call-origin information being proprietary to a specific telephoneprovider.
 15. The tracking method of claim 13, further comprisingcustomizing said call-origin information, by an individual telephonecompany; connecting said individual telephone company to said computersystem.
 16. The tracking method of claim 13, further comprisingcoordinating said database with a telephone provider to frequentlyupdate area codes with geographic regions.
 17. The tracking method ofclaim 13, further comprising segregating data areas belonging to saidseparate processes; thereby restricting separate users from viewing databelonging to other users.
 18. The tracking method of claim 13, furthercomprising enabling users to remotely access said computer system. 19.The tracking method of claim 13, further comprising operating saidcomputer system by a human or automatic attendant; vocally communicatingwith users through a telephone; thereby providing desired portions ofsaid call-origin information to users lacking remote access to saidcomputer system.